# Late night pu brewing



## sirxlaughs (Nov 18, 2005)

Some recent tea talk made me want to post this.
Last night, I decided to brew a mushroom tuocha that I had yet to try. It is a 2005 Xiaguan "Tibetan Flame" ripe/cooked pu-erh.



















So, using a small pairing knife, I dug into the 'shroom to get the amount of tea I needed out of it.










The teapot holds about 300ml, so I weighed out ~8 grams of tea.



















I did an initial rinse of the tea before the first brew. Here's a few shots of the finished product. This is a nice earthy, woody tea.




























If anyone is curious about the pot - It's a Japanese, purple clay pot made by Tachi Masaki. Enjoy and thanks for reading!


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## cheese (Dec 26, 2009)

Very nice. Earthy/woody are qualities I tend to like. Even better if there is also a malty component.

Do you get your teas online or do you have a local source. What you have there looks to be very high quality stuff and I can't find anything like that locally.


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## sirxlaughs (Nov 18, 2005)

cheese said:


> Very nice. Earthy/woody are qualities I tend to like. Even better if there is also a malty component.
> 
> Do you get your teas online or do you have a local source. What you have there looks to be very high quality stuff and I can't find anything like that locally.


That particular one, and a few others I have, I purchased from www.yunnansourcing.com. I didn't mention earlier, but (for anyone who doesn't already know) high quality teas can be infused multiple times. For example, that 8-9 grams I took off made me 5 ~8oz cups (I didn't drink them all myself).


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## cheese (Dec 26, 2009)

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for that site. Until now I had been relying on Teavana, Adagio, and the occasional can of Rishi. The prices look very reasonable too.

I'll be trying these two:

*Yunnan "Black Gold Bi Luo Chun" Spring 2010 Yunnan Black tea*

*Feng Qing "Gold Tips" Pure Bud Black Tea * Autumn 2010*

I can't wait!


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## Max_Power (Sep 9, 2010)

These pu-erh teas have my interest piqued. Any tips for a noob looking to try some out?


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## cheese (Dec 26, 2009)

Max_Power said:


> These pu-erh teas have my interest piqued. Any tips for a noob looking to try some out?


To me, quality teas are like fine Scotch. There is a huge variety which is a good thing.

Starting out with a tea I've never tried, I like to buy a small quantity first, say around 2 oz. This way, you won't get stuck with a bunch of tea you don't like. This saved me from wasting a bunch of money one time on a Lapsang Souchong (which is dried over wood smoke and way too smokey of a flavor for me).

Try to find descriptions of the teas you're interested in before buying and if possible, taste them if you have a local source. Even Teavana has some really nice teas but they charge a little more and most of their employees know very little and often say things that are incorrect. So do your homework. It took me a little while to figure out what I liked in what types of teas. Also, I have a variety of teas on hand to suit my mood or the time of day.

Pu-erh teas have lots of flavor and a lots of varieties of flavor. Pu-erh teas are named from a specific area and people within Yunnan. So technically, like Champagne, to be a true Pu-erh it should come from this area. Also, Pu-erhs are not black teas.

I tend towards black tea from Yunnan and more specifically golden Yunnan black tea. This actually lines up with my tastes in Scotch. A little earthy, woody, malty with a touch of sweetness and sometimes a light hint of fruit like peach or apricot. Some teas also have mild notes of chocolate. Golden Assam teas are good also. Here is an example of a tea you might be able to find locally: Golden Yunnan, Organic Fair Trade Black Tea - Rishi-Tea I pay about $9/can of this tea.

There are also lots of flavored teas also. For Earl Grey I prefer Rishi to Teavana. For mint green tea, Teavana's Moroccan Mint Green Tea rocks with a spoonful of honey in the middle of the afternoon. It's a great pick-me-up.

I use Teavana's perfect tea maker and hot water from the water cooler thing at my office. I first add a little cold water when steeping green teas. If you get a tea maker like this, the one from Adagio Teas is supposed to but superior to the one from Teavana. (I didn't know about Adagio when I bought mine.)

The choice of adding anything to your tea, like honey or milk, is entirely up to you. Don't let anybody tell you you're doing it wrong by adding what you want. Do try you're teas without any though, just to find out what you prefer. This always reminds me of the ice cube/water being added to Scotch argument. I say, drink what you like.


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## sirxlaughs (Nov 18, 2005)

cheese said:


> Thank you, thank you, thank you, for that site. Until now I had been relying on Teavana, Adagio, and the occasional can of Rishi. The prices look very reasonable too.
> 
> I'll be trying these two:
> 
> ...


You're very welcome. I also started with the sites you mentioned. A little (a lot of) research led me to more "real" sources of tea. Hou-de also has a nice selection (and other stuff beside pu-erh), and I've also ordered from puerhshop.com. Scott from Yunnan Sourcing is great and highly communicative. A lot of his teas have some basic tasting notes, but I'm sure he won't mind answering questions or giving recommendations. There are many samples available as well. That way, you don't have to commit to whole cakes, bricks, etc.

Both the teas you picked sound amazing from the tasting descriptions. The Black Gold looks awesome with the unfurled leaves in the website photos.


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## sirxlaughs (Nov 18, 2005)

Max_Power said:


> These pu-erh teas have my interest piqued. Any tips for a noob looking to try some out?


Lots of research. Besides some of the stuff I've posted earlier, know that there are two main types of pu-erh. Green/raw and Ripe/cooked. The green stuff requires aging to really appreciate. Cooking the tea is a way to achieve aging without the aging (if that makes sense). Also, young, green pu-erh has been shown to be poisonous in large quantities. From what I've read, the ripe/cooked stuff is more popular in China and some of my Chinese friends didn't even know there was a "raw" variety. When I showed them a pu-erh that didn't brew deep, dark, red like above, they didn't know what it was. I've also read that proper aging for the green stuff requires about 3 years. 
Last but not least, sample different teas first. There's so many brands, varieties, prices, shapes, sizes, etc that you're head'll spin. If you're too confused or can't decide on a purchase, don't hesitate to ask the vendor. I've had nothing but good dealings with Scott from Yunnan Sourcing and Jim from Puerh Shop.


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